


Within Striking Distance

by TheDandyRascal



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, The Red War (Destiny), Titans punching things, exes getting back together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23865931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDandyRascal/pseuds/TheDandyRascal
Summary: Humbled by the loss of her Light, a reckless Titan must learn how to keep herself -- and everyone relying on her -- alive in trying times. Also she's stuck working with her ex AND has to figure out how to train a new generation of Guardians without getting them all killed.
Relationships: Female Guardian/Zavala (Destiny)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm certainly no lore expert and Bungie doesn't make it easy to cross-reference game world details, so a liberal amount of "eh, that sounds plausible" has been applied to this story.

**Part 1: Storm the Castle**

Thunderhead clouds hang ominously in the sky as Fireteam Sierra 9-9 returns to the Last City from a routine patrol of the Skywatch in Old Russia. The trio of brightly painted jumpships form up tighter to avoid losing sight of each other in the rapidly darkening sky; their comm channel falls silent with growing unease. 

The patrol had gone well. Thanks to regular action from the Vanguard, the Jovian Complex — where the Hive General Omnigul fell — hasn’t re-emerged as a Hive insurgence point. Today all Sierra 9-9 had to deal with were scavengers and some lingering hotspots of corruption which resulted in a pretty easy patrol. Their comms had been full of easy-going chatter until they’d hit the storm.

In the lead ship, Sierra 9-9’s Titan grips the flight controls a little too tightly as her Ghost repeats his hail to the Last City.

“Repeat: Tower Approach, this is CityHawk 723. Anyone home?”

Nothing but static answers him.

“No response on any channels, even the emergency frequencies. What is going on back there?”

Cee-li shifts restlessly in the pilot’s chair, a frisson of nervous energy skittering down her spine at the static on the line. Something about it puts her teeth on edge. “Leave the line open a second?” She listens intently when Winger complies with her request, ignoring the eerie sensation of buzzing against her senses. “Cut it. Open team channel. Hey Sunshine, you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”

The Hunter’s voice — usually a wry drawl — is clipped and distracted. “That we’re being jammed?”

“Jammed? How can you tell?” their junior member, a Warlock named Kara, sounds nervous. 

“Makes my teeth itch. This shit used to happen all the time back in the day, after awhile you start to recognize the cadence of a jammer over the comms.” Cee-li forces herself to loosen up on the flight stick when it groans ominously in her steely grip. “Winger?”

The little Ghost hovering over her shoulder projects a HUD within her eye line, showing rapidly scrolling data streams as he runs decryption computations against the signals. “It’s not a pattern we’ve encountered before, but I can’t access the full Vanguard database this far from the City.” He pauses. “I don’t _think_ it’s SIVA or any other recently known threat, but I can’t confirm without a better sample size.”

“Shit.” Cee-li sighs.

Sunshine’s voice crackles over the comm again as her jumpship noses forward to Cee-li’s port side. “Only one way to get more data, yeah?” 

The storm clouds are now a solid, roiling mass that blacks out the sky. The ship vibrates when a peal of thunder rolls over them from a lightning strike a kilometer to the west. One thing’s for sure, there’s nothing natural about this weather. The environmental scrubbers that supply the cockpit with fresh air kick on full to clear out the hazy residue seeping in through the engine exhaust manifolds; the jumpships are only truly airtight when they engage the pulse drives to leave planetside, otherwise they burn fuel like a supernova while in atmosphere if they’re not using the thrust jets.

Kara’s voice crackles over the comm, static degrading the channel as they fly further into the black storm clouds. “Guys, this smoke smells like burning oil. Lela’s identified the composition and it’s definitely a combusted accelerant at very high volumes.”

“—bably a smo— crzzt —reen for somethin— ain’t good.” By now the comm channel is so saturated with distortion it’s nearly impossible to hear Sunshine.

Winger bobs in the air in a facsimile of a head nod. “Cee-li, remember when I told you that you fly too fast? Forget I said that. Fly fast!”

She’s already shoving the throttle forward to punch into the clouds.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cee-li, an Awoken Titan  
> Winger, her Ghost
> 
> Sunshine, a human Hunter  
> Bucky, her Ghost
> 
> Kara, a human Warlock  
> Lela, her Ghost

\-----

The trio of little ships make their way through the inky black smokescreen for a heart-stopping fifteen minutes. At full-throttle a _Phaeton_ -class jumpship can cover 800km in just under an hour while flying within atmosphere, so the fact they just flew through 200 klicks of obscuring fog before reaching the edge of the City’s communication array does not bode well for what they’ll find on the other side. Sensors are next to useless with all the interference, leaving them to fly blind with little visibility and a lot of faith in their Ghosts. As the smoke begins to thin, Winger trills in surprise and projects his HUD for Cee-li again.

“Hard to starboard!”

She complies automatically, trusting her Ghost, and hauls hard on the yoke while stomping on the yaw control to send the jumpship into a sickening spiral dive to the right — barely avoiding a collision with the ass-end of a much larger ship.

Cee-li whips her head around to get a better look at the ship, causing Winger to squawk. “What the fuck was that?”

“Eyes front! Get us low while I figure out what’s going on —” his shell lights flicker rapidly. “Bucky and Lela confirm the others are fine.” The HUD shifts again, charting a circuitous flight route as data scrolls across his feed. “The Last City is under siege by a Cabal fleet with unknown markings. Most transponders are offline and the comm channels are still unusable until we can get within range of the Tower. That was a Cabal warship you nearly rear-ended.”

“Guess we’re heading to the Tower then.” Cee-li dips the ship low and breathes a sigh of relief when she spots Sunshine and Kara forming up on her tail.

“Already charted the course.”

-

It’s a hair-raising entry back into City airspace as they’re forced to fly low and fast to avoid catching the attention of any enemy ships. Their jumpships are built for speed and distance — not combat — and only have minimal shielding designed for deflecting debris rather than energy weapons. One lucky hit could cut their trench run short real fast.

Eventually Fireteam Sierra 9-9 manages to find an auxiliary hangar on the eastern side of the Tower that seems fit to land in. Black smoke billows from the gaping crater that used to be the Vanguard’s Command Centre; it takes all of Cee-li’s discipline to not immediately charge up towards it when all she can do is send a quick prayer to the Traveller that folks got out safe. She lets out a slow, calming breath as her ship settles on its landing gear and whacks her closed fist against the cockpit release a little too hard on her way out.

“We’re low on supplies,” Sunshine appears from thin air as Cee-li scrounges one last box of shotgun shells from the ship’s tiny hold, her usual expression of calm boredom marred by tension around her eyes. The small human Hunter barely comes up to Cee-li’s shoulder but she learned long ago not to underestimate her friend. “I burned a lotta rounds on that strike. I’ve only got half a clip left in my rifle.”

“Here.” Cee-li hands over the lion’s share of her rifle ammunition to the other woman. “You’ll make better use of it than me.”

Sunshine’s mouth quirks up a little and stashes the two ammo boxes into the pouches at her waist. “I keep tellin’ you, patience makes a good sniper.”

“And I keep telling _you_ ,” Cee-li thumps the hold hatch shut with her elbow. “I ain’t got time for patience. Besides, I’m the distraction, remember? Let’s grab Kara.”

They turn towards the front of the hangar bay just as a crackling bolt of void energy zips over their heads and Kara’s voice cuts across the hangar in warning. “Run!”

Sunshine curses and hooks her hand around Cee-li’s arm, swinging herself up onto the titan’s back in a well-practiced maneuver moments before the bigger woman launches herself towards the back of the hangar with a burst of momentum from the booster jets on her sturdy, armoured boots. The hunter tucks and rolls when they near the end of the jump’s arc, leaving Cee-li to crash feet first through the metal grating over a sunken maintenance bay and slam into the grimy tool pit just moments before an explosion rocks through the hangar.

Superheated air roars over Cee-li’s head as she ducks low, Kara popping into the safe haven next to her with a blink jump. The warlock’s eyes are wide as she pants to catch her breath. 

“Missile ship,” she says, her left hand still crackling with void energy. “It must have seen us land. I think I hit it though.” Kara glances down at her hand, almost as an afterthought, and the roiling black-purple energy dissipates. 

“Good eye.” Cee-li waits a beat for any secondary explosions before peeking her head up, then lets out a foul curse. “Guess we’re not leaving the same way we came in, huh?”

Kara’s head pops up next to hers, surveying the twisted wreckage of their jumpships. “Whoops, guess the missile was a lot closer than I thought.” She adds in a small voice. “Sorry.”  
The titan sighs and claps her teammate on the back. “Just a ship. Don’t worry about it. Sunshine, you alive?” she calls out.

The hunter appears at the edge of the pit and extends a hand to help them out. She looks completely unfazed by the near miss explosion — although the hem of her cloak is a little singed. “Time to press on, yeah?”

Cee-li nearly loses her balance when the whole facility tremors and she gives her fireteam a grim look before nodding towards the hallway door. “Yeah.”

Winger appears over Cee-li’s shoulder. “Let’s get moving. We need to find Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde.”

Sunshine’s silver-shelled Ghost, Bucky, shimmies out of the Hunter’s cloak and gives his fins a little shake. “Definitely. This team needs adult supervision.” Sunshine snorts and swats playfully at her Ghost.

Cee-li huffs a laugh and heads towards the exit with the least amount of fire. “Come on, Sierra 9-9. Let’s go save the Tower.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the Ghost and Vanguard dialogue has been lifted from gameplay.
> 
> \--

It quickly becomes apparent the auxiliary annex was hit by more than just the one gunship Kara managed to take out. Emergency power keeps the hallways dimly lit but most of the bulkhead doors have sealed closed to prevent the spread of fire; luckily there are _plenty_ of gaping holes in the walls for them to circumvent any fire doors they can’t muscle open or have a Ghost override. The air is heavy with acrid smoke and dust from the smouldering remains of missile strikes, although most of the actual fires have been handled by the Tower’s fire suppression system which leaves a chalky coating on every surface and an astringent scent in the air.

And the further into the Tower they go, the sound of gunfire echoes closer and closer around them.

Sunshine leads the way through the smoky, dark hallways strewn with rubble; they’d agreed stealth and expediency were the key to reaching the Vanguard rather than engaging the enemy in the unstable lower floors. Her light footsteps barely make a sound as she navigates obstacles with darting hops, pausing near every junction to listen intently. 

She’s perched on a spar of rebar fifteen feet away from the rest of the fireteam when Bucky calls out a warning as a rubble-filled doorway explodes between them. “Cabal!”

Cee-li’s shotgun blast hits the Cabal Legionary dead in the face as Sunshine’s rifle barks, taking out the one bringing up the rear. Both bodies slump to the floor moments before the hallway grows cold from Kara gathering her Void magic.

“Oh.” She lets out a sheepish little laugh before dissipating the ball of magic swirling around her palm. “I gotta work on my reaction time.”

“What you _gotta_ do is remember you have a gun, kid.” Cee-li jerks her head back in the direction Sunshine had been heading. “Let’s keep moving.”  
The trio of Ghosts zip around the fallen Cabal, scanning their bodies for data, before scooting back towards their Guardians.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Winger muses from behind Cee-li’s shoulder. “The Cabal conquer systems by blowing up planets, not landing invasion forces.”

“They must be looking for something,” Bucky adds. “Whatever they want, it must be here in the Last City. I wonder what it could be.”

Lela’s soft voice cuts off their musing. “We’re in range of the emergency broadcast channel now. Patching in.” A radio broadcast echoes from her small speakers.

_This is Commander Zavala. Civilians, report to designated evac points. Guardians, rendezvous in the Plaza. Our city will not fall._

Surprisingly they encounter only a handful more Cabal soldiers as they cut across a cargo ship berth despite the sound of gunfire getting increasingly close. Sunshine leads them in a route that runs parallel with a main hallway, and on several occasions they’re close enough to the enemy to hear their radios buzzing through the walls. They do run into a lone Legionary but Cee-li’s lightning quick punch silences the enemy before their position can be given away; she wipes gore off her gauntlet as the body twitches to the ground, its thick skull completely caved in from the Titan’s melee strike.

They pause for a heart-stopping moment, listening for others, before Sunshine nods and continues leading the way. As they round a corner, a bulkhead door at the end begins to rattle ominously; the fireteam exchange looks and draw weapons on it, waiting to get the drop on whatever fool is on the other side.

When the door screeches open to reveal Cayde-6 — the Hunter Vanguard — they all relax. Just behind him are a squad of Cabal soldiers still reeling from a stun grenade.

“Cayde!” Bucky exclaims with relief, bobbing in the air as his shell lights flicker happily. “We were coming to find you!”

“Hey friends! Gimme a sec,” the Exo hunter cheerful responds before spinning on his heel with a golden gun of Solar energy forming in his hand; he fires off all six shots in rapid succession, dropping the entire Cabal squad in the blink of an eye. “That’s better.” He turns back to them and throws his hands up in an enthusiastic greeting. “Glad you made it to the party! Zavala’s doin’ the hero thing up in the Plaza, he’d probably love to see ya even more than me.”

Sunshine steps forward to peek through the door, checking to make sure everything’s down. “So what, you’re just roamin’ around down here then?”

“Me?” Cayde’s optic sensors light up with surprise. “I gotta date with whoever’s behind this. It’ll be a short date, if you catch my drift.” He spins his hand cannon around his trigger finger by the guard, then holsters it with a showman’s gesture. 

The small hunter flashes her Vanguard leader a shark-toothed grin and shoulders her rifle. “Wanna wingman?” She nods back towards her fireteam. “These two’ll stir up enough trouble without me.”

Cayde offers his elbow in a gentlemanly gesture, mimicking her drawl. “Why Miss Sunshine, I’d be honoured.”

She snorts a laugh and shoves him towards the opposite hallway, glancing back at the others. “I’ll comm if we find anything. Don’t be stupid.”

Cee-li rolls her eyes. “How can I be stupid if you’re takin’ all of it with you?”

Cayde, from across the room, calls back. “Hey! I heard that!”

The titan grins at her warlock teammate and nods her head in the opposite direction of the two hunters. “Let’s go.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief interlude from Kara's POV as she follows her Fireteam leader through the bowels of the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure, this story started as a Nanowrimo project and I literally just noticed this section shifts POV to Kara. Rather than completely re-drafting this section I'm going to be lazy and leave it as is for now!
> 
> \--

They carefully pick their way through two more half-collapsed sections before finding an area still mostly intact. Thanks to the reinforced construction of the maintenance bays the walls here are standing and the bulkhead doors have managed to suppress the spread of fire. Their path dumps them out into a ground vehicle garage. Cee-li takes a beat to get her bearings before her expression brightens.

“Oh, I know where we are. There’s a shortcut this way!” She takes off at a dead sprint across the auxiliary vehicle bay, vaults over a crumpled Sparrow frame, and throws herself into a powerslide under a mostly lowered bulkhead door that’s been jammed by disrupter fire.

Kara follows at a more sedate pace, peering carefully down the connecting corridor for any unfriendlies before darting after the energetic titan. When she gets to the door she has to drop to her knees and wriggle under it — much less dignified than her partner’s slide.

Cee-li grins when the warlock scoots her way under the door and reaches down to help the other woman to her feet. “Good thing there weren’t any Cabal over here, huh? They wouldn’t wait for you to fish flop under the door before opening fire.”

“Shaddup.” Kara lets Cee-li pull her upright, dusting off her hands before unholstering her scout rifle. “I hate your shortcuts, by the way. Always way too much running and jumping.”

“Hey, not everyone can just float around like a graceful feather. Some of us have to fling ourselves through the air with brute strength and dumb luck.” Cee-li gestures down the narrow service corridor with her shotgun. “Come on, this way.”

-

They’ve been creeping around in cramped auxiliary hallways for nearly fifteen minutes and the shuddering vibrations of the siege against the Tower have been getting worse. The light banks creak in their casings as the concrete slab walls groan around them. The sound is very unsettling and Kara is beginning to feel anxious all the way down on... whatever level they're on.

“How’d you find this _shortcut_ anyway?” Kara wrinkles her nose with a barely suppressed sneeze, her eyes watering from all the dust hanging in the air. “Doesn’t seem like anyone’s been down here for years.”

Cee-li’s bulky shoulder pauldron shrugs slightly as she leads the way through the narrow hallway packed with old cargo crates, empty ammo boxes, and a mix of dead leaves and windblown trash. “I can’t sleep sometimes. So I go exploring. The Tower is full of places like this.” 

“Ah.” Kara’s bunked with the restless titan long enough to know about her bouts of insomnia. Even tried to teach her how to meditate, but that hadn’t worked too well. “I guess living here so long you’ve probably explored it a lot, huh?”

“Yep.” 

Cee-li’s abrupt answer could mean one of two things — she’s focused on getting them up to the Plaza quickly and safely, or she doesn’t really want to talk about her nocturnal wanderings. Kara suspects it’s a little of both. Sometimes she forgets that both Cee-li and Sunshine are _much_ older than her, even though Kara — who died in her late 30s — physically appears to be the eldest. Neither of her friends talk willingly about the past. At least not without excessive amounts of alcohol first.

Eventually the titan finds what she’s been looking for: a maintenance shaft complete with a barebones metal loop ladder. Cee-li peers up into the dimly lit space and nods to herself. “This should take us up to storage level 12 where — if we’re lucky — we can find some ammo. Then it’s a jog across the supply hangars and up the back staircase to the Plaza.”

Kara’s already given up trying to figure out where they are; she’s fine with directions so long as she has landmarks to use for navigation, but all the hallways down here look the same. “Sounds good. Are you going to fit though?” she gestures to the titan’s bulky armour.

“Shit. Winger, little help?” the other woman’s Ghost pops out from her bag and scans her quickly, humming idly to itself.

“I’ll have to transmat your weapons and pauldrons,” he muses out loud. “And your helm, otherwise you won’t be able to look up.”

“That’s fine. Leave the shotgun.” The little machine flits around her for a second, stashing weapons, armour pieces, and her many belt pouches into his virtual cache. When he’s done, the titan’s profile is marginally slimmer and she’s able to clamber into the tunnel. “Up we go!”

They climb at least four storeys, pausing at every floor so Cee-li can inspect the signs at every access hatch. Kara’s arms are starting to get tired by the time the titan makes a cheerful exclamation. “We’re here!” She jams her gauntlet through the door wheel and wrenches it open with a squeal of stuck metal, shoving the hatch open with her shoulder. Cee-li grunts and falls into the hallway when it pops open and slams into the wall with a loud clang.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We begin to deviate from gameplay.
> 
> \--

“Ack!” Cee-li half tumbles through into the hallway and freezes once she notices the business end of a hand cannon aimed at her head. Her muscles are already bunching to react when the gun lowers and a familiar booming laugh echoes above her.

“My _favourite_ defender! What a surprise, I thought your fireteam was off-planet.” A huge gauntleted hand reaches down to haul Cee-li all the way through the access hatch. “I should have known you wouldn’t miss a good fight, my dear.”

“Shaxx,” she lets out a long breath to calm her ‘fight’ reflexes. “We got back about an hour ago, just as the siege was starting. Slipped in through that nasty fog cloud, whatever the fuck it was.” Cee-li jerks her thumb towards the maintenance tunnel. “Kara might need a hand. Sunshine split off when we ran into Cayde.”

The Crucible master folds himself in half to peer into the narrow shaft and chuckles. “Miss Kara! You look less than pleased to be following your fearless leader through the underbelly of the Tower. Allow me to assist.” He reaches in to haul her out as well, setting the bedraggled and dusty warlock onto her feet.

“Thanks, Lord Shaxx.” Kara’s Ghost appears to flit around her, cleaning her armour and transmatting her belongings back. “We’re on our way to the Plaza to rendezvous with the Commander.”

“Ah yes, he is coordinating the evacuation as we speak. Come,” he slaps Cee-li on the freshly restored shoulder pauldron and she staggers a little off-balance. “My armoury is open to you.” He tilts his one-horned helm a little to the side. “Provided we’ve managed to get the bloody door open yet...”

-

Shaxx leads them down a corridor crowded with civilians and cargo crates, then around the corner towards a sealed bulkhead door. A few Redjack frames stand sentry near the doorway while others organize supplies; a ship mechanic is peering into the tangle of wires behind the door’s control panel with a bewildered expression on her face. She startles a little when she realizes Guardians have appeared behind her and whirls around. 

“Er, Lord Shaxx! Um,” the young woman shifts nervously, glancing back over at the broken panel. “I still haven’t managed the lock. Sorry, sir. I’m more of a propulsion specialist than an electrician.” She twists a braided length of coated wire between her fingers in a nervous gesture.

“Not a worry! You tried your best.” Shaxx pats her gently on the shoulder before coaxing her out of the way. “Now if you please, stand aside." 

"Let _me_ try the door.” he exclaims in his loud, enthusiastic tone as he steps up to the huge metal door. Shaxx inspects it for a second before jamming his fingertips in the narrow seam and muscling them apart, gesturing them inside with his usual showman’s flare. He keeps his back against one side of the sliding door and braces his arm across the gap to keep it open. 

Kara smiles and nods in thanks before scooting beneath his arm and into the room.

Cee-li snorts a laugh and rolls her eyes at the huge titan. “Show-off.” She can’t see his facial expression beneath his helm, but the amused tone in his voice says enough.

“Life’s more interesting with a little razzle dazzle, don’t you think?” he leans his head down a little to murmur to her. Shaxx's body takes up most of the doorway and he doesn't seem interested in moving to let her pass easily. Cee-li gives him a curious look from beneath her lashes as she squeezes herself passed him, then enters the storage room stacked high with weapon crates and ammunition.

The strange moment over, Shaxx remains holding the door and raises his voice again. “Luckily we were able to make it down here to an armoury storeroom. When the siege began we cleared the north wing hangars and managed to rescue some supplies along the way.” He points down the hallway near the room’s opposite exit. “Follow the path from there, it will lead you through the hangar to the plaza.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Backstairs.” Cee-li nods and glances up at the elder titan. “Provided they’re still mostly intact, but even then we can manage. Figure it’ll be useful to approach from the flank in case the Plaza is pinned down.”

There’s a hint of pride in his voice when he nods back. “Good plan. I would do the same.” A Redjack steps up to mind the door, relieving its Master of the duty so Shaxx can step into the armoury with them. He claps Cee-li on the shoulder again. “Take extra ammunition up with you. Traveler only knows how much Zavala has gone through.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Rifles don’t _always_ have to be on full auto but I gave up trying to convince him of that decades ago.”

Cee-li snorts a laugh. “I can do that. You going to come up with us?”

Shaxx glances back over his shoulder at the crowd of civilians spilling into the corridor. Folks covered in dust, some with tear-streaked faces, others calmly attending to the wounded; all of them quietly brave.

“No,” he says in an uncommonly soft voice. “As much as I would love to join the battle up top, I have a more important mission. I’ll take care of these people, get them and any others we find along the way to safety.” He pauses as an automated evacuation protocol sounds over the comm system. “I’ll be falling back to the Crucible arena in Twilight Gap. Risky, but I had Redjacks crawling throughout it just yesterday preparing for a match. Anyone who cannot make it to an evac transport can be directed to me there.”

Then Shaxx posts his hands on his hips and stands at his full, towering height as his voice booms again. “As for you my lady, if the Cabal want war, give them war.” 

She responds with a wide, toothy grin and gives Shaxx a two-finger salute. “Will do, boss.” 

Kara’s already shoving boxes of shells into her belt pouches when Cee-li joins her at the ammo pile. “Anything fun in here?”

The warlock gestures with her chin, hands full as she sorts rifle clips for her Ghost to transmat for later. “There might be some rockets over there if you’ve got a launcher on you.”

“Naw, Sunshine’s got it. Ooh!” Cee-li picks up a box off the floor and cracks the lid off. “Grenades! Winger, gimme a hand?”

The little green-shelled Ghost appears and transmats a couple of ammunition belts. “Are you taking _all_ of those?” he asks warily as the titan begins to hook them onto her armour with a wide, manic grin. She pauses to give her Ghost a wide-eyed look. “What? They’re just flashbangs!”

“This place is already on fire, Cee. Try not to add to it, hmm?”

“Oh stop worrying, it’ll be fine,” she gives the Ghost a gentle little pat on his shell. “Have I ever started a fire with a flashbang before?”

“Yes!” Kara and Winger say in unison.

“Okay, like _one_ time!”


	6. Chapter 6

_“Evacuation order 7-7 is in effect. This is not a drill. All civilians report to designated evacuation areas immediately.”_

Cee-li gives Kara her shotgun to free her hands, then jumps up the wall to knock the screen off a ventilation shaft. She barely catches the edge of it before it would have clattered loudly to the floor, alerting the squadron of Cabal soldiers just around the corner. Shaxx had been right — they needed to get up to the Plaza to help with the evacuation, not dick around down here — so stealth would be the key to their success.

She sets the grate down carefully then jumps back up to get a good hold on the edge of the shaft, muscling herself up into the crawlspace from a dead arm hang. The space is just big enough for her to turn around and offer Kara a hand up, but the warlock makes the jump easily with a little burst of magic. 

“Warlocks,” Cee-li sighs fondly, accepting her shotgun back. “Always showing off.”

“Oh yeah sure, like the whole strongman routine you just did isn’t a titan showing off,” she whispers back. “Scoot, scoot, let’s go. These little spaces give me the creeps.”

Luckily the sound of the siege drowns out any clattering and clanging they make traversing the length of the air ventilation system, circumventing countless hostiles and cutting their journey in half. Cee-li peers through the grating on the other side, Winger’s scan sweeping the small workshop for occupants.

“It’s clear,” he whispers and she bumps the grate out of place before clambering out of the ventilation shaft.

“There’s no way the hangar on the other side of this door is clear,” she says quietly, pressing her back against the wall near the still sealed door. “It’s too close to the Plaza.”

Kara nods and readies her rifle with a nod. “So stay frosty, got it.”

“Atta girl.” Cee-li flashes her a quick-fire grin before unclipping one of the flashbang grenades off her belt. “9-9.”

“9-9.”

-

The skirmish in the hangar is brief thanks to the element of surprise and minutes later they’re jogging down a corridor towards an observation deck. As they round the corner, both titan and warlock stumble to a halt as they’re dumbfounded by the sight of the battle raging outside. A gargantuan Cabal battleship cruises overhead as threshers buzz around a carrier disgorging drop pods into the smouldering ruins of the lower Tower floors — the entire building shudders as they slam into the superstructure but it’s still not enough to distract them from the large ship.

Winger breaks the silence. ““Look at the _size_ of that thing! It must be their command ship.”

“It’s definitely something,” Cee-li mutters as dread begins to curl in her stomach. “This is not good, friends.”

“I bet that’s where Cayde and Sunshine are heading,” Kara says with worry evident in her voice. “They better not do anything stupid and get themselves launched into space or something.”

Cee-li shakes her head. “If it was gonna happen to someone, it’d be them.”

“Goodness!” Winger gasps as he floats near the window, Lela hovering next to him as their optic sensors flicker rapidly over the tableau unfolding outside. “They’re not just assaulting the Tower, look at the Traveller!”

“What the fuck is that?” Cee-li presses the side of her face against the glass to get a better angle at the strange apparatus unfolding itself just beyond the huge command ship. As the sixth prong locks into place the structure a mesh of orange light begins to form between the arms, growing rapidly into a force field that surrounds the entire Traveller. 

“A force field?” Kara asks, standing on her tiptoes to match Cee-li’s eye line.

The dread in her belly coils tighter. “A cage,” she says grimly.

A pregnant pause hangs between them before Kara pulls away from the view. “We have to find the Vanguard. Come on.”

—

Kara drifts back down to her feet as the icy sting of Void magic begins to fade from the room. Cee-li jogs over to the open hangar door, peeking over the edge to watch the squadron of Legionaries tumble to their deaths on the ground ten storeys below. 

“Good shot!” she yells back, giving her teammate a thumb’s up. “You got ‘em all!”

The warlock wipes sweat from her brow with the dusty sleeve of her robe and gives her leader a shaky smile. “It was a team effort. You set them up for me when you grounded that Centurion.” She nods towards the smouldering remains of the field commander that’s been crushed into its heavy armour like a tin can. 

Cee-li gives an ‘aw shucks’ shrug and trots over to nudge the dead humanoid with her boot. She wrinkles her nose at the smell of charred flesh and ozone from her lethal Arc energy enhanced punch. “You know, these guys are a real pain in the ass. With their stupid long-range rocket launchers and bullshit shields.” She kicks the corpse out of spite before loading more rounds into her shotgun.

“We can head up this way to get to the Plaza, right?” Kara’s already walking towards a teetering metal staircase, then turns towards her Ghost. “Lela, any luck on those comm channels?”

“I think I’ve found the Vanguard’s emergency channel running on a frequency that isn’t being jammed,” the Ghost says softly. “I’ll patch in.”

Cayde’s voice immediately sounds through the Ghost’s speakers. _“Okay, my Ghost keeps tagging these Cabal as Red Legion. Ikora, whaddya got on them? Ack!”_ There’s a sound of something exploding in the background that fills the channel until he cuts from his end.

_“Do I even want to know what that was?”_ Ikora sounds calm and steady, as per usual, but exhausted. _“The Red Legion. They’re elite. Ruthless. And rumour is, they have never known defeat.”_

_“Until today.”_ Zavala interrupts, his tone assured. _“Today they face Guardians.”_

A hint of irritation picks up in Ikora’s voice, as if she’s immune to the bolstering spirit of the Vanguard Commander’s confidence. _“Zavala, they’re attacking the Traveller. We have to do something.”_

_“The Traveller has existed long enough without us, it can hold on while we finish the evacuation of the City.”_ His tone is firm. _“How can we call ourselves Guardians if we do not protect our people at any cost?”_

_“Yes, but if we don’t help the Traveller there may not be Guardians left to protect them!”_

Cee-li and Kara share an awkward glance full of silent eyebrow-based communication. _You interrupt_ , the titan’s blue eyebrow says to the warlock. The younger Guardian shakes her head and points to the Fireteam Leader emblem on her armour. Cee-li sighs and shoots her teammate a sulky look before glancing at her Ghost. Winger bobs in the air as if nodding and sounds a little friendly tone onto the comm channel as if they’ve just joined.

“Commander, this is Fireteam Sierra 9-9. We are en route to the Plaza, ETA three minutes,” she says briskly. “Approaching from the eastern walkway.”

Zavala responds promptly, ending the argument with his teammate. _“Acknowledged, Sierra 9-9. Watch your step.”_

Cee-li gestures for Winger to cut the line by drawing the side of her hand across her neck, then sighs at Kara. “Well, that was awkward.”

“Yeah, no shit. Like catching Mom and Dad having a fight.” She begins to pick her way up the shaking metal staircase, testing each step before setting her weight on it.

The titan lets out an abrupt bark of laughter. “Oh god, never call Zavala that in my presence again.”

“What, Dad? Why?”

A flush of dark purple streaks across the Awoken woman’s cheekbones and she shakes her head, embarrassed. “We’ve got history, that’s all.” 

Kara stares at her teammate in open shock. “History? Wait, _have you fucked the Commander?_ ”

Cee-li fixes her with a side-eyed look that says ‘ _just drop it_ ’ and grunts. “ _Ancient_ history. Get my drift?”

“Yep, sure thing.” Kara sketches a quick salute. “Loud and clear, boss.”

"Oh, it's been at _least_ five years since they last time they had sex." Winger chimes in, then hovers closer to Kara and drops his tone to a stage whisper. "They're one of those on again off again things, you see."

"Hey!" Cee-li swats at her Ghost. "Traitor!"

Kara stifles her giggles as her fireteam leader storms off ahead.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon: The markings many Awoken have aren't tattoos but patterns of Light beneath their skin that shift and flare with their emotions. 
> 
> \--

The eastern approach turns out to be an adrenaline-filled few minutes of clambering over damaged walkways and quick stepping over muddy cliff sides that crumble beneath their boots. Cee-li hoists herself up onto solid pavement just in time to see two Cabal drop pods collide with the parade ground, sending up plumes of sod and paving stones. She takes off towards one at a full-sprint before the ground even stops trembling, letting out a war cry as Arc energy sparks around her; the titan shoulder charges the first body she finds and sends the Legionary exploding backwards into the rest of its landing party and electrocuting them all. A howling ball of Void magic streaks overhead to collide with the other drop pod, obliterating it as the icy black roil of energy consumes the metal pod with inhabitants still inside.

Cee-li turns to grin at Kara and gives her another exaggerated thumb’s up gesture. “Another great shot! You’re doin’ great, kid!”

The _rat-tat-tat_ bark of an auto-rifle draws them back to the task at hand and they jog over towards the wide, sweeping staircase where the Vanguard Commander surveys the parade ground with a grim look. Zavala gives them a distracted nod when they approach.

“Sierra 9-9, perfect timing.”

“As always,” Cee-li can’t help but quip. “But you know that already.”

Zavala gives her a dry look, but continues on. “Where is your hunter?”

“With Cayde, sir.” Kara pipes up, stepping slightly in front of Cee-li to get into the Commander’s eye line, as if hoping to cut whatever awkward tension is stretching between the two titans. “We ran into him downstairs. Oh,” she holds out her hands as her Ghost transmats half a dozen boxes of rifle ammunition from its cache. “We ran into Lord Shaxx as well. He asked us to bring these up for you.”

Zavala turns to give Kara a patient smile and nods his head slightly towards her. “My thanks. I will be sure to put this to good use.”

“Right. Anyway,” Cee-li draws in a deep breath and gestures broadly to the armada surrounding the City. “So, the Red Legion. Some sort of elite Cabal force? They seem better trained than other Cabal forces I’ve encountered in the past.”

“These Red Legion are well-trained,” Zavala straightens his shoulders and reloads his rifle. “But we are _better_.”

His confidence sends a little thrill down Cee-li’s spine but she schools her expression to hide the effect his little speeches have on her — truth be told, they’ve always worked on her in a very unprofessional mixture of inspiration and arousal — and she chambers another round into her shotgun. 

“Of course we are, but what’s the end goal here? The City’s burning down around our ears.”

Zavala fixes her with a piercing stare, the electric blue aura of his eyes flaring with conviction. “We will hold this line until the last civilian is safely away. Understand, titan?”

She quirks a slight smile and gives him a cheeky salute to cover the hitch in her breathing from being on the receiving end of _that_ look again. “You got it, boss.”

His posture of confident command fractures for just a moment as he shoots her a dry look of exasperation, which only causes Cee-li to grin widely in victory. Zavala furrows his brows and opens his mouth to retort, but Kara cuts him off.

“Um, sorry to interrupt whatever… this is, but there’s more drop pods coming.”

Cee-li just winks at him before vaulting over a decorative concrete planter to introduce herself to a new Cabal landing party.

—

Cee-li runs out of shells before she can finish off the squadron of legionaries, resorting to ducking beneath a meaty-armed swing of a particularly dumb looking one. She tucks her head down and uses her boost thrusters to launch her body into the huge Cabal soldier, sending both of them careening to the ground; the impact and her added weight cause the creature to reel as it flounders on its back, giving her enough time to bash its skull in with the butt of her shotgun.

She’s in the middle of lifting all the dead Cabal’s ammo when Zavala’s voice rings out across the parade ground, “More Red Legion! Show them what Guardians are made of!”

With a savage grin Cee-li’s already on her feet and running towards another squadron, priming a grenade. “Hey!” she yells in their direction. When a trio of rhino-like heads turn towards her she lobs the grenade in an underhanded toss towards the middle of the pack. “Catch!”

Their bodies go flying as she thrust jumps backwards, flinging herself away from the blast and letting the concussive force carry her back towards the stairs. 

“Incoming!” Zavala’s shout is sharp with warning. “Fall back to my shield!”

Cee-li hits the pavement with a bone crunching rattle and curses when she spots the Cabal missile ship swinging around towards them. She sprints for the safety of the stairs where Zavala has taken a defensive stance, his arms thrown wide as a shimmery dome of Void slams down around him. Cee-li throws herself into a powerslide and clears through the icy cold layer of Void just as the first missiles make impact.

Zavala digs his armoured boots into the pavement, gritting his teeth at the strain of holding the Ward of Dawn as long as he can. “Don’t let them pass through the gate, the evac shuttles are back there!” 

Cee-li glances down the avenue to where the evacuation shuttles are still loading and she realizes he’s placed himself in the unprotected centre of the stairwell to cover the open archway behind him. Which means, as soon as his shield falls he’ll be a sitting duck. 

Stupid, courageous man. Whose near future is going to include getting a missile to the chest.

Cee-li stows her shotgun and hands Kara the belt of remaining grenades. “Hold these.”

Kara blinks in surprise but loops the ammunition belt over her head before putting her scout rifle back up to her shoulder with a sigh. “You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you?”

“Brave,” Cee-li corrects her with a wry smile.

“That’s the same thing to titans.”

Cee-li laughs and backs up down the avenue behind Zavala’s shield, just far enough to get a good running start. “Head down, boss!” 

She hears him grunt in surprise when her boot skips off his braced back, using the other titan as a stepping stone to launch herself into the air. She draws on the Light within her — the wild, crackling destructive power of Arc — and brings her gloves together in a double-handed Fist of Havoc smash straight into the cockpit of the missile ship. She catches a glimpse of a panicked Cabal pilot at the controls in the split second before the craft combusts, sending her flying in the opposite direction. Cee-li is whooping and crackling with Arc energy as she uses her boot thrusters to redirect her momentum to send her crashing into the ground. Her impact sends a landing party flying, then she kicks off again into another one and sends a drop pod spinning off over the edge, her Arc energy electrocuting every living thing inside the metal craft.

When she feels her potential energy petering out, she uses one last burst of inertia to fling herself back to the safety of the stairs and ducks behind a broken concrete pillar to catch her breath. Winger appears immediately to heal her wounds now that it’s safe for him to pop out of her armour. She flips the faceplate of her helmet up to grin at her teammate.

Kara gives her an unimpressed look but says nothing as she braces next to Cee-li’s head to sight down her rifle, picking off a couple stragglers with well placed shots.

Just across the way, ducked behind his own pillar Zavala looks _furious_. The muscles in his jaw are corded with tension and the Light patterns beneath his dusky blue skin are flickering madly, a rare visual reaction from the man. Awoken learn quickly how to steady their emotional responses to avoid broadcasting every thought and feeling with the shifting colours that pattern their skin; Zavala is usually so even-keeled that non-Awoken comrades assume the streaks of Light on his face are tattoos. But Cee-li has had plenty of experience reading his emotional flares, particularly _this_ one.

“What —” her temper spikes and she can feel her own flare response across her cheekbones. “Are you pissed about?”

“That was incredibly reckless!” he growls through clenched teeth. 

“Worked though, didn’t it?” she spits back, turning her attention back to reloading her shotgun in a half-assed attempt to hide the flickering flare across her face. 

“You put yourself in tremendous danger!”

“Because I’m a Guardian! It’s what we do!” she shouts back, the Arc energy slowly recharging inside her crackles and spits around her hands. “You were _just_ as reckless! Throwing down your shield in the _middle of the open doorway_! And you don’t even wear a helmet, you stupid ass!”

“Can you two shut the fuck up and focus?” Kara’s usually timid voice is sharp with authority. “This is no time for a domestic!”

Cee-li grunts and turns around so she can crouch behind the pillar and get a better vantage over the battleground. “Fuck, another wave incoming? Ain’t they figured it’s a waste of time to keep hucking drop pods at us?”

A squadron of Cabal soldiers appears from the flanking side of the parade ground and their weapons chew up precious cover before the hunkered Guardians can take them out; the attack has managed to reduce their safe real estate even further. Useless at this range, Cee-li stows her shotgun and accepts Kara’s scout rifle, freeing up the warlock to start hurling bolts of Void magic.

“Commander,” she calls out, still too pissed at him to use his name. “This position is quickly becoming undefendable.”

“We hold here,” he calls back, his auto-rifle barrage chewing through half a landing party before Kara could finish it off. “The evacuation isn’t done yet. Once that’s complete, that command ship is next on my list.”

“Cayde and Sunshine are working on it already, Commander,” Kara calls out, stepping out from behind a pillar to unleash a massive crackling ball of magic onto the battlefield to take out all three drop pods as they impact into nothing but pure icy Void. 

Zavala is quiet for a moment before he clears his throat. “Good shot.”

“Look, I know you want to —” Cee-li starts, but the emergency Vanguard comm channel opens again with an update from Ikora.

 _“Zavala, the last of the shuttles is away and the evacuation of the Tower is complete.”_ She pauses and the anxiety is clear in her voice. _“But the Speaker… he never made it to a shuttle. I’m going to look for him.”_

Zavala curses quietly and fixes both Cee-li and Kara with a stern look. “I’ve got the plaza, go with Ikora. Find the Speaker.”

Cee-li’s head swivels towards the sound of another Cabal warship moving into position to launch another broadside of drop pods. “That’s a lotta Red Legion incoming, are you sure?” He gives her a hard stare back and Cee-li snaps again. “What? I’m not allowed to be _concerned_ about you?”

“You two are impossible!” Kara cuts in again, yanking her rifle back from her teammate. “I’ll go with Ikora to find the Speaker.” The warlock drops the belt of flashbangs back into Cee-li’s lap. “You two… just don’t do anything stupid.”

Zavala gives the warlock an affronted look and Kara just lifts an eyebrow at him, nodding down towards Cee-li. “She’s a bad influence on you, Commander.”

“Hey!”

But Kara is already blinking off towards the western side of the parade grounds, hailing her Vanguard leader to tell her she’s en route.

The hissing whine of drop pod hydraulics cuts through the air and Cee-li gets ready to prime another grenade, crouched behind the crumbling remains of a concrete flower pot. 

“She’s wrong, you know,” Zavala calls out, the barrel of his rifle propped on the lip of his own planter.

“What?” Cee-li’s distracted by the pending collision of more landing parties. “Who’s wrong about what?”

“Kara. You’re not a bad influence on me.”

Stunned, Cee-li turns to give Zavala a baffled look. “This is really not the time, Zavala.”

Muscles bunch in his jaw again, his eyes glowing brightly in the smoky dim air. “I know. I just… wanted to say that. In case there’s no other time.”

A pregnant pause stretches between them before Cee-li huffs a little laugh. “What happened to —” she pitches her voice low to imitate him. “ _Today they face Guardians._ ” Her smile falters a little when he gives her a sober look, holding up an ammo clip.

“These are my last rounds, Cee-li. And you’ve got what, three shells left?” Zavala braces himself with a grunt when three drop pods slam into the chewed up parade ground. “We’re nearly out of ammunition.”

Quick as a flash Cee-li heaves a grenade followed quickly by another, ducking back to avoid a hail of return fire. Panting she looks over at Zavala and lifts her right fist towards him. “So we fucking punch their skulls in, like _titans_.”

She slams her helmet faceplate back down and she explodes into motion, vaulting over the planter with a furious war cry to start throwing righteous haymakers and lethal left hooks. The sound of Arc energy crackling around her doesn’t quite drown out the sound of Zavala roaring as he follows suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--  
> Cee-li doing the running jump off Zavala's back to pop her Super in mid-air was the scene that inspired this entire story.


	8. Chapter 8

It might be minutes or hours later — it’s hard to tell when the Cabal finally stop flinging drop pods into Square — and Cee-li is jogging alongside Zavala through the evacuation routes to check for any stragglers, both titans unwilling to leave an endangered soul behind on their watch. The Plaza is abandoned and ruined; concrete planters and outdoor furniture are heaped in piles, shoved aside to create space at muster points; the cobblestone streets cracked where the heavy evacuation shuttles set down; colourful awnings half-torn from their anchors flap listlessly in front of storefront windows shattered from the concussive force of the shuttle repulsor lifts. This once beautiful gathering space at the heart of the Tower now resembles the crumbling ruin of the European Dead Zone and it’s a sobering sight.

As the adrenaline that fueled their last stand begins to fade, the tentative camaraderie they’d built disappears with it. And they’re right back bickering.

“I cannot believe you _did_ that. It was incredibly irresponsible!” Zavala says testily as he steps in through the shattered front window of a bakery. He does a quick, efficient sweep of the space with a sidearm loaded with the last of their shared ammunition. “Clear.”

Across the narrow cobblestone avenue Cee-li is doing the same spot check in a small art gallery. Glass crunches beneath her heavy boots as she steps carefully around fallen pedestals and crumpled canvases. “What? Take out an entire invasion wave of hostiles without anyone getting killed or wasting our minimal supplies? Pretty good move, in my opinion.” She steps back outside. “Clear.”

He breathes out sharply through his nose and turns to glare at her. “Cee-li --”

She cuts him off with an impatient slash of her hand and she points to the black chevrons painted on her armour. “ _Captain_. I am a Vanguard Captain. If you’re going to dress me down for doing my duty to protect this City, _Commander_ , then you can use my fucking title.”

“You are _impossible_!” 

“And _you’re_ a hypocritical asshole!”

-

Further down the avenue two figures dressed in dusty City Militia uniforms are picking through the ruined boulevard scavenging for supplies before they inevitably get orders to retreat from the burning Tower. A boy barely out of his teens stacks things carefully onto a small handcart while his patrol partner — a woman ten years his senior — crouches down next to a heap of discarded ammo clips. Guardians in the Tower rarely worry about ammunition rationing in the same way the Militia does and frequently leave unspent rounds in their clips.

Something catches the young man’s attention. Two Guardians standing in the middle of the street arguing; the taller female one is jabbing her finger into the man’s chest and he’s fuming with his hands on his hips.

“Hey, earth to Keanu.” The sound of loudly snapping fingers draws his attention back. Jori is holding out a handful of bullets for him to take. “What’re you lookin’ at?”

“Shit, sorry.” He takes the shells and begins sorting them by caliber into containers. Keanu jerks his chin in the direction he was looking. “Those two Guardians are fighting about something.” Both Awoken are now gesturing wildly; the female pushes at the male’s pauldron hard enough that he has to take a half step back.

Jori straightens up enough to see over a broken bench and scratches her nose. “Vanguard.” She sucks on her teeth and squints a little. “Looks like Commander Zavala.” Then she lets out a low whistle. “Man, that lady is _pissed_ at him.”

“What’d you think they’re fighting about?”

“Aw hell, kid.” Jori looks up at him with a wide grin. “There’s only one thing a woman gets that mad about.” She glances back down at the pile of clips she’s just finished checking, then stands up to clap him on the shoulder. “Come on, we’ve cleaned this spot out.” She starts towards the two Titans and Keanu scrambles to grab the handcart’s handle.

“Uh, shouldn’t we leave them alone?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jori flashes him an innocent look over her shoulder that’s immediately ruined by a cheeky little smile. “We’re just doing our job, ain’t we?”

Keanu sighs and follows his partner. As they get closer, Jori half-heartedly kicks at debris but her attention is mostly tuned towards the Guardians. They’re close enough now to pick up parts of the argument.

“ _Sound tactics!_ ” the male one shouts. “ _Reckless decision making is not sound tactics!”_

_“Excuse me?”_ the female retorts. _“Which one of us led the very successful raid on Oryx? Me!”_

_“Oh please, I heard about that bullshit you pulled off with that Knight’s sword, leaping off that balcony!”_

_“And you think you could have done better? I took a calculated risk to protect my team!”_

_“By putting yourself at risk! You can’t protect people if you’re dead, woman!”_

_“Wow, really? Woman? Do you act like this around everyone with a vagina or am I just special because you’ve been in it?”_

_“I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!”_ he throws his arms up with exasperation, but his tirade cuts off abruptly as the Commander’s expression changes from annoyance to stunned silence.

For a split second, Keanu feels like he should run away. Like maybe they finally just noticed two Militia idiots eavesdropping and they’re going to turn their anger elsewhere. But before he can grab at Jori’s sleeve, he watches the fight drain from both Titans as they stare at each other with abject horror. The female grabs at the Commander as she begins to stumble forward and he catches her under the arms, but doesn’t manage to keep himself steady and he sways like a drunk. After a moment of teetering, both Guardians fall to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

“Oh shit!” Keanu darts forward until he’s pulled up short by Jori’s lightning quick hand grabbing the back of his jacket. “Urk!”

“What are you doing?” she hisses at him, her eyes wide and darting around the ruined Plaza. Her mischievous amusement has faded and she looks alert, paranoid. “What if it’s not safe? Something just took down _two_ Titans!”

Keanu just shrugs free of her hold. “They would help us. Come on!”

-

Cee-li is sprawled on her back, gasping for air. Her sturdy armour has never felt so heavy, like it’s pressing down against her chest, trapping her against the ground. Her vision is blurred around the edges and the only thing she can hear over the rushing of her own rapid pulse is a high-pitched keening sound. It takes a moment for her to realize the sound is coming from _her_.

“Hey, Guardian. Are you okay?” a young man’s face swims into focus above her, then steady hands are helping her sit up. “I think you’re having a panic attack, ma’am.” He says as he fumbles to loosen the tension strap on her chestplate. “You gotta breathe slow and deep. In through your nose, out through your mouth.” This boy, dressed in a familiar grey and black uniform, is calmly trying to help her get her shit together.

She does as he instructs and manages two, then three, slow and deep breaths before her brain kicks into gear. “Zavala!?” Cee-li lurches to the side as she turns to find him, nearly toppling the kid before she manages to prop herself up.

“He’s over there. My friend is helping him.” She spots Zavala on his hands and knees, heaving his guts into a cracked flower planter while a woman awkwardly holds onto his pauldron. “I’m Keanu Tomas, with the City Militia. Do you know what just happened?”

Cee-li shakes her head slowly and almost tips backwards at the wave of dizziness but the kid catches hold of her chest plate again. “No… I.. something’s wrong. Very wrong.” The panic grows again as she presses a hand to her chest. “I.. I can’t feel my Light. Winger!” she starts pawing at a notch in her shoulder armour where a Ghost unit is docked but not moving. “Fuck, no no no…”

Keanu pulls her hand away so he can look closer. “The little lights are still glowing, maybe it’s just sleeping?”

Before she can extract her dearest friend from his hiding spot, a massive explosion rocks the plaza as the top of Vanguard tower begins to crumble apart. Cee-li pulls the boy towards her, instinctively shielding his head and back with her armoured bulk.

“The fuel reserves…” Zavala pants out, pushing himself to his knees with the militia woman’s help. “We have to get moving.”

“Where?” the woman asks, wide-eyed as gouts of flame burst from the fallen building. She steadies the Commander as he gets to his feet.

When Zavala hesitates, Cee-li remembers the conversation in the armoury hours ago. “Twilight Gap! Crucible arena…” she begins to struggle to her own feet. “Shaxx fell back there with anyone who couldn’t make it to a shuttle. Help me up, kid.”

Keanu digs his heels in but isn’t strong enough to help the fully armoured tank of a woman to her feet. Cee-li nearly pulls him over when she starts to tilt, but Zavala catches her. The two titans wobble dangerously but manage to stabilize by leaning into each other.

“Let’s go.”


End file.
